


Mausoleum of Dead Love

by Truthwritaslies



Category: Crimson Peak (2015)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Kid Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-16
Updated: 2016-03-16
Packaged: 2018-05-27 02:40:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 401
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6266305
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Truthwritaslies/pseuds/Truthwritaslies
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Edith watches her and Thomas's son grow and reflects on what was lost.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mausoleum of Dead Love

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own any commercially recognizable characters and I make no money off of this.

Edith never marries again. 

Despite everything else in her life that would say she must (the birth of her only child eight month after the death of her husband and sister in law, the scandal of being made a bride and then a widow so shortly after the death of her only family, the business, the money...) she could never bear the thought of another man in the place of her gentle Thomas. Only one other man might have come close, her dearest childhood friend Alan, and he was dead as well.

She takes her son, William, with her to board meetings and lets him see her stand strong in the face of the judgement of old men Edith had once seen as Uncles. She takes him to see all the inner workings of his business, from the clerks offices to the heavy machinery. 

Edith smiles sadly when William displays for her his first technical drawing, more fancy then aptitude, and praises his interest. He is more and more like his father every day. 

She takes him to the ruin of Crimson Peak, his by birthright, and pretends for a moment that she sees Thomas just beyond the ruined arch of the doorway. William shows little interest in the place and Edith is not sure it's a relief. 

Edith tries so hard to make life good for her son but inside she withers away a little each passing day. She cannot help but think how much easier it would have been for Thomas. How much easier it would have been _with_ Thomas.

She weeps most nights, late; long after she knows William to be asleep. He's a child, her child, and he does not need to bear any burden greater than that. 

She weeps for her child and for herself but most of all for Thomas: her brilliant, beautiful, vibrant husband who had died far too soon. Who had been taken from her and from William. Who she can't help but think should be the one still alive while she should be dead. 

In her head she re-writes history so that the fight between her and Lucille happens after William's birth. Perhaps Lucille kills her as she lays weak from the birthing. Perhaps Thomas kills Lucille out of grief. Whatever happens Thomas and William are alive. Alive and thriving the way a boy raised in the mausoleum of dead love cannot.


End file.
